


Bright

by LoverlyMadhatter



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: A little, Angst, Confessions, Cute, F/F, Fluff, Love Confessions, Picnics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 01:44:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9796946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoverlyMadhatter/pseuds/LoverlyMadhatter
Summary: Orochi is Kagero's light in the darkness, her bright colors in a black world.





	

If the rest of her comrades could see her right now, they would be rolling in the grass with laughter. She imagines Saizo, eyebrow quirked and scowl on his face, watching her tremble on the bank of the brook. He wouldn’t laugh, but her students, her liege, her friends – they would. They would all be wondering why the stoic Kagero was standing on a bank, picnic laid out before her, actually shivering with nerves.

Maybe she shouldn’t be here.

“Kagero!” calls a voice she knows better than any other. All at once it is calming and daunting, sending electric shocks up her spine and down.

“Orochi,” Kagero replies, forcing her voice to sound calm and together.

Orochi appears through the tree line like a ray of sunshine in the darkness, casting glowing light on everything she touches. Lavender hair frames her face, never devoid of a smile, and Kagero feels her heart jump into her throat.

This is real.

Before taking note of anything else, Orochi comes up to Kagero first, clasping their hands together. Kagero hopes that Orochi doesn’t feel how sweaty her hands are or if she can feel her rapid heartbeat in her wrists. If she does, she doesn’t say anything, just presses a kiss to her cheek like she always does, then pulls her into a tight embrace.

“You’ve laid out such a nice picnic, Kagero,” Orochi compliments, finally pulling away and taking full stock of the scene. She turns back with a smirk. “What do you have planned?”

The blood rushes into Kagero’s face, and she knows Orochi notices. Fortunately, she makes no mention, just turns and takes a seat on the blanket, waiting for an answer.

“Ah, well…” begins Kagero, lump in her throat making a valiant attempt to silence her. “It was… just such a beautiful day and I thought that… we could meet here.”

Orochi taps a finger on her chin. “But how could you have known the weather would be nice a week ago, when you asked me?”

Kagero’s heart stops. Orochi figured it out, and Kagero is _not_ prepared to handle it – _what is she going to do how will she –_

“Ah, I’m just teasing,” Orochi finally huffs, eyes twinkling as she watches Kagero search for an answer.

Her relief is a cool wave. “I’m pleased the weather is nice, though. Any time spent with you is good time, but pleasant weather makes it so much better.

“What did you make for us?” Orochi asks, bending over the picnic basket. Kagero tries to find the words in her mouth, but the scroll inside of her shirt seems to weigh heavily on her chest. Normally, her best friend is a calming presence, but the way she looks up with sparkling eyes makes Kagero feel anything but calm.

“Uh, well… rice balls,” she replies, surprised to find words somewhere in her mouth. Kagero wants to wait to tell her, but she knows that, as agonizing as it is right now, she’s not going to be able to sit still for an entire meal.

“With plum?” Orochi’s eyes are on her, and Kagero’s whole body is still frozen.

“Uh,” she mutters. “Y-yeah.”

Then, instead of picking through the basket and sitting down, Orochi does the exact opposite. She straightens her body and steps forward into Kagero’s space, pushing her toward the edge of the bank.

“You seem nervous, Kagero,” Orochi states, eyes searching.

Kagero steps back involuntarily, pressing her hand into the scroll beneath the fabric of her shirt.

“Am I making you nervous?” Orochi is teasing her, eyebrow quirked up toward her hairline. One corner of her mouth is pulled up into a smirk, and it makes Kagero’s heart hammer out of her chest.

“I, uh, well,” she starts, and takes another step backward. The instant her foot doesn’t meet the earth, she realizes her misstep.

A million things run through her mind as her foot misses the bank of the river. The first is the look on Orochi’s face, eyes wide and mouth open as she watches. The second is frustration – she’s a ninja, there’s no reason she should _ever_ misstep like this. The third is the scroll in her shirt. She reaches in desperately to grab it, moments stretching out into minutes, but her fingers are too thick and her arms are too clumsy. Orochi reaches out to grab her arm, but it’s too late, she can already feel gravity working against her. Instead of saving her, it pulls Orochi into the brook with her, water coming up over their heads as their limbs tangle together.

The brook isn’t too deep, but Kagero’s still soaked from head to toe. The water flushes through her mouth and into her eyes, body landing painfully into the riverbed. There’s only more pain as Orochi lands on top of her, elbows and knees a mess with Kagero’s.

Moments pass while they try to remove their mess of limbs from one another. From Kagero’s hips to her neck, her whole back and bottom is throbbing, crushed into the rocks at the bottom of the brook. She grunts when Orochi moves on top of her, trying to push herself off without doing anymore damage.

Her mind finally comes back together, and the first thing she does is presses her hand to the scroll in her shirt. Immediately she knows it’s ruined, turned from a slip of paper into a pulpy pile of paint. All she wanted was for this to go perfect – have a nice lunch with Orochi, give her the picture, maybe chicken out at the end and leave like they were just friends. But now, whatever plans she had were ruined, along with the painting inside of her shirt.

Tears prickle her eyes, so she bites down on her lip. She hasn’t cried in years, and she wasn’t about to start now.

“Kagero?” asks Orochi. Her smile is still bright across her face, and when Kagero looks up it makes her heart jump. A beacon of sunlight in the darkness – a glimmer of hope inside of a dark, dreary world. She outstretches her hand and pulls Kagero up, power hidden in her slim arms.

Orochi doesn’t say anything when she presses her thumb to Kagero’s cheek, wiping away tears that she’ll never mention.

“I’m sorry,” Kagero mumbles, head falling toward her chest. As much as she’s trying to keep the tears from spilling onto her cheeks, they just keep coming, bursting over her lids and down her face. Her whole body is shaking now, chest tight and the lump in her throat swollen to the size of what feels like an apple. “I wasn’t supposed to mess this up.”

“Mess what up?” Orochi’s voice is calm and kind, and her eyes are soft. They widen when Kagero places the sopping piece of paper into her hand and she unfolds it as best as she can.

On the paper are still the traces of Kagero’s piece, just all melted together into one jumble. There’s the black smudge in the center where she drew the two bodies, surrounded completely by bright blues and whites. Light colors of orange and yellow ring the blue, the most colorful and bright piece she’s painted to date. It felt right at the time, but looking at its melted mess, it just dropped a pit into her stomach.

“Did you… paint this?” Orochi asks, and Kagero shoves the heel of her hand into her eye, nodding.

“It’s so bright,” she says quietly, tracing her hand over the paints and coming away wet. Orochi looks up and her eyes are sparkling, lavender hair falling out around her face and framing it. The bow in the back is in shambles, strings plastering to the sides of her face and her forehead, but she looks just as beautiful as ever: a beacon in the darkness.

“It’s… ah… well…” Kagero’s voice trails off, and it’s hard to look Orochi in the eye. She looks away, but Orochi’s hand is on her chin, pulling her vision back forward. “Um… what I came here to tell you is… ah… well…” Kagero’s whole face burns like fire, and she swears it evaporates the water on it.

She steels herself and takes a deep breath. “I love you.” And then the words come flooding out of her like they never have. “I used all those colors because it’s the closest to the way I see you. The blacks and reds don’t make sense for you, just don’t fit right, so I had to mix some brighter colors because you’re like a ray of light in everything and you could never be darker than that and I don’t know if I could make it through a day if anything were to happen to you. I want to protect your sunshine for the rest of my life and ah… I want to spend my life by your side and –“ As soon as she realizes what’s come out of her mouth, she stops, stemming the flow with her hands.

Orochi is quiet, but still searching her with those sparkling eyes. Kagero is sure her clothes are dry from how on _fire_ she is right now.

Then, out of nowhere, Orochi rushes forward and presses a quick kiss to the tip of Kagero’s nose.

“I know,” she says with a grin, like Kagero just told her the sun was rising. Then she winks, and the blood is roaring in Kagero’s ears. “You can’t hide anything from me.”

“Well… wh-why didn’t you… tell me?”

Instead of crashing down around, the whole world feels bright and warm as the sunshine on their backs. Her heart hammers in her chest and she’s sure Orochi can hear it and that makes it so much better.

“Ah, well,” Orochi begins, looking up toward the sky and counting off on her fingers. “I wanted you to figure it out on your own, for one. Besides, we were dealing with Saizo, and Mikoto, and the end of the world…”

She looks like she’s going to continue talking, but Kagero seizes the moment her mouth is open. Instead of listening, Kagero surges forward, pushed by every beat of her heart and every bit of energy in her body, and presses their mouths together.

Orochi doesn’t hesitate, just immediately slots her mouth against Kagero’s like it’s where it’s meant to be. It feels natural, feels like they do it every day, feels more comfortable than anything Kagero’s ever experienced. Orochi’s lips are soft and plump, and there’s just enough bite in her kiss that it keeps Kagero on her toes.

When they finally pull away, the flush on Kagero’s cheeks is mimicked on Orochi’s, high and red on her cheeks.

“So,” begins Kagero with a rush of air. “Will you do it? Will you stay with me?”

There’s that mischievous smirk on Orochi’s face while she pretends to decide, tapping her finger on her chin. “Mmmm… I’ll have to think about it…” she mutters.

Then Orochi is pressing their bodies back together and, before Kagero can register anything but the taste of Orochi’s mouth, there’s a leg hooked behind her, pressing and buckling her knee so she’s falling into the water again. Orochi’s there in her lap, kissing her breathless, and it doesn’t even matter that she’s soaking wet.


End file.
